The Prince's Secret
by nevertrustmetoupdate
Summary: In which Sakura Chiyo becomes concerned about Kashima and the way she acts. And then starts to investigate, with help from Hori and Mikoshiba. One-shot.


**Abuse and not very graphic violence TW**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

**Just an idea that I had in my head. Sorry for the mistakes :/**

* * *

><p>It was definitely a bit concerning that Kashima considered getting hit by Hori-senpai a sign of love, or in her words, proof that she was the favorite kouhai or whatever. Why would she think that? It, couldn't be...<p>

Sakura Chiyo decided to keep her mouth shut for now, but she had her eye on Kashima.

It was just a suspicion after all. Hopefully it wasn't true.

But then Sakura saw the other signs.

Kashima was a fast healer. In fact any marks that Hori-senpai had left from throwing various things at her always disappeared the next day. A bit too fast Sakura thought. No, way to fast, inhumanly fast. There was a good chance that Kashima was covering the injuries with make-up or something like that. But, why would she cover them if everyone knew that it was due to Hori-senpai and his violent tendencies.

Suspicious, suspicious...

Kashima loved attention. Kashima was very clingy to Hori, the person who had beat her up frequently. Kashima craved Hori's attention. Hori acted like a doting parent to Kashima.

Shit. Kashima was probably being beaten by her parents. It would make sense. Why she thought getting injured by Hori-senpai was a sigh of love, her behavior, her healing, her clinginess. Shit, shit, shit.

Sakura needed more proof though, proof that she couldn't get on her own. So who else to ask for help but Kashima's best friend Mikoshiba?

* * *

><p>"Mikorin! Can I talk to you in private later?" Sakura called out.<p>

"Uh, yeah, sure," Mikoshiba scratched his neck sheepishly. "And stop calling me Mikorin, unless you want me to-"

"Yeah, yeah ok."

Once classes and clubs ended for the day Sakura met up with Mikoshiba in a empty classroom.

"So what do you wanna talk about?" Mikoshiba asked.

"This, erm, might sound weird, but have you ever met Kashima's parents?"

"Yeah, they were, weirdly tense," Mikoshiba place his hand on a desk. "What about it?"

Sakura lowered her voice and looked down, then she stepped closer to Mikoshiba, his face reddened a bit. "Don't tell anyone this but I think Kashima's parents are abusing her."

"What. WHAAAAAAAT?" Mikoshiba paused, looked up at the ceiling, then cleared his throat. "Holy shit you might be right. That would explain a lot. How did I not notice?"

"How did you not notice what?" A third voice interrupted. It was Hori.

"Ah senpai, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked.

"I was repairing some of the props that Kashima and her fangirls destroyed earlier. What are you guys doing here?"

Sakura and Mikoshiba looked at each other. Please don't say something weird Sakura thought.

"Well Sakura was just professing her love to me, but, I denied her since I cannot be tied down" Mikoshiba answered. He started to blush.

"No I was not... and don't get embarrassed Mikorin. We were just going over ideas for the manga," Sakura said.

"Then why isn't Nozaki-kun here?" Hori questioned. He was about to say something else but Sakura interrupted him.

"Aha, I wonder why..."

"And," Hori continued, "I thought I heard you say something about Kashima."

Shit.

Mikoshiba suddenly got serious and tried his best to look cool. "Look, senpai, its none of your business."

"Aha, ok then..." Hori scratched his neck and left.

At the end of the week Sakura told Hori what was up.

* * *

><p>Hori felt like an asshole. No, an abusive asshole. It's just that Kashima can get him so angry at times. She can be such an idiot sometimes, especially for someone at the top of the class.<p>

But no, that's still not a reason to physically harm the girl. There's no reason to actually harm a person, unless in self defense.

He felt like he was the worst person ever. From this day on he would not lay a finger on Kashima.

Of course, Kashima noticed this. And being Kashima she decided to act more like an idiot. The fucking princess jokes would not stop. Of fucking course Hori thought. But he would stay true to his word, he would not harm Kashima.

Eventually, and finally Kashima realized that he would not give her the "special treatment" that she usually received.

"Um, Hori-chan-senpai?" Kashima asked. It was about three weeks after Hori had stopped injuring her. Club activities and classes had ended.

"What is it, Kashima?"

"Why have you stopped hitting me?" Kashima looked down at her feet. "Do you hate me?"

"No, no," Hori waved his hands. "It's just, I realized that hitting you was wrong and immature of me. Even an idiot like you doesn't deserve to get hit."

"Oh," Kashima said. "So you weren't hitting me because you liked me," Kashima murmured to herself.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

* * *

><p>It was a stupid plan, but it was the only one they got.<p>

First Hori was going to "accidentally" spill some water on Kashima. Then, hopefully, this would cause Kashima to go to the bathroom to change clothes. Sakura, who would be in the bathroom, would come out of the stall and see if A. any make up was coming off and revealing a bruise or B. When Kashima takes off her shirt, which should be wet, if there are injuries on her skin.

Of course there were many, many flaws. Kashima could be wearing water proof make-up, and she could just go into a stall to change. Or she might not go into the bathroom at all to change, since there are changing rooms. And if Sakura was in there Kashima might think that something was up.

Anyways the whole plan went right down the drain when Kashima dodged the water. Sakura had waited in the bathroom for about two hours, various girls had asked her what was taking her so long.

Back to the drawing boards.

"Why don't we just ask her?" Hori suggested the day after the plan had failed.

"Ask her? What if she lies to us?" Sakura asked.

"Well, it's not like we got any other ideas," Hori replied.

"So who is going to talk to her?" Mikoshiba asked. Then both Sakura and Hori turned to him and looked at him. "No, no, I'm not going to do it." He turned to Hori. "Why don't you do it, you're her beloved senpai!"

"Yeah, but you are her best friend!"

"Sigh. Guys, I'll just do it," Sakura piped up. Hori and Mikoshiba looked at her like she was an angel from heaven.

* * *

><p>"Um, Kashima-kun, can I talk to you for a minute?" Sakura asked.<p>

"Sure, Chiyo-chan, what's up?"

Ok, should I just be blunt about it or hint at it? Well, this is Kashima we're talking about here, Sakura thought.

"How's... your home life?"

"My home life? I guess it's fine." Sakura would have taken that answer if Kashima didn't look so nervous.

"I'm just going it say it, are you being abused?"

What Sakura wasn't expecting was Kashima to break down and cry for an answer.

Kashima's fangirls gave Sakura dirty looks for the rest of the week.

* * *

><p>Sakura had told that she could Kashima stay at her house, but she refused and ran away before Sakura could force her to stay. The tall girl was too fast for Sakura's short legs. Dammit.<p>

Sakura called Kashima multiple times and texted her too, but she got no replies.

Kashima wasn't in school for the next week.

Hori had went to visit Kashima's house but no one was there. The front door was open. That was when they did something that they should have done earlier, they called the police.

Apparently some of the neighbors had reported loud noises coming from the house earlier that day.

The police had found the Kashima family near a river. Kashima's little sister ran up to the police and begged for help. She had a few bruises on her face. Her father was passed out with a broken beer bottle in his hand. Her mother was lying closet to the river and was the closet to the father. Her right leg and arm were at a weird angle. It seemed like she got into a fight.

Kashima was passed out and lying on her stomach. She seemed to have a lot of scratches on her. The thing that was the most concerning was a large piece of glass, which was probably from the beer bottle, dug into her shoulder.

* * *

><p>Kashima had a lot of people visit her at the hospital. Her injuries weren't that bad. She had required stitches on her shoulder and had a minor concussion. She was let out in less than a week.<p>

Hori probably visited her the most. He would bring various plays to read since she wasn't aloud to watch TV due to her concussion. He later told Sakura that she seemed a bit jumpy.

Mikoshiba told her that he would entertain her fangirls while she was recovering. Mikoshiba's face became red and Kashima laughed.

Sakura visited her once or twice. She told Kashima about the things that she missed.

The hospital had to kick out her fangirls multiple times.

Once she returned her neighbors watched after her and her sister as her mother was recovering. Her mother had a broken arm and leg.

Kashima now had a therapist appointment once or twice a week.

Her father was arrested and taken to jail. Kashima and the rest of her family were too scared to visit him.

* * *

><p>Kashima returned to school two weeks after she was released from the hospital. Being Kashima, she was able to catch up in no time.<p>

Hori made a big fuss and would constantly ask how she was feeling. Kashima always replied that she was ok, and she was secretly loving the attention that her beloved senpai was giving her.

Kashima wasn't allowed to

When Hori wasn't around her fangirls went back to surrounding her.

Kashima seemed to be back to her old self, but Sakura couldn't help but notice that she would flinch when someone would touch her, especially if it was Hori.

Well it wouldn't make sense if she was able to make a perfect recovery in this short amount of time. She was on her way though.


End file.
